Your spending guidelines
These rules of thumb from Money magazine will help you avoid overspending on renovations: • If you’re planning to renovate an existing property, don’t outlay more than half its value to do it up. For example, if you’ve bought a renovator’s delight for $400,000, don’t spend more than $200,000 fixing it up.
• If you just want to put in a new kitchen, then spend only 4% to 6% of the property value; for a new bathroom, spend only 2% to 3%. Landscaping should cost a maximum of 1% to 2% of the property’s value.
• And if you’re planning to knock down and rebuild, then don’t spend more than the home would be worth.
What should you spend you money on?
Bathroom: According to US-based Remodeling magazine, which conducts a survey every couple of years, a mid-range bathroom renovation (replacing and updating the fixtures and fittings) or cladding the house with fibre cement returns the highest value on average (more than 100% of investment).
More elaborate bathroom renovations are likely to return 93.2% on the investment while new home offices recoup 74% on average.
Kitchen: Luxury kitchen makeovers — with imported fittings, stainless steel appliances, stone benchtops — recoup an average 85%. Minor kitchen makeovers — replacing cabinet fronts, upgrading the stove and oven with energyefficient models, replacing benchtops, and giving the room a fresh coat of paint — were found to return 98.5% of the investment.
Energy saving: Sustainable features and fittings such as solar panels, skylights, insulation and water-saving devices are becoming more popular and gaining recognition as m
Energy saving: Sustainable features and fittings such as solar panels, skylights, insulation and water-saving devices are becoming more popular and gaining recognition as m